Report: Amtrak Pumped Polluted Water Into Lake

Workers Say They Didn't Know The Water Contained Diesel Fuel. The Der Says Amtrak Could Be Fined.

December 25, 1992|By Mary Watkins Of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — Amtrak workers in Sanford may have pumped about 30,000 gallons of water contaminated by diesel fuel into a creek that flows into Lake Monroe, court records said.

A report on the case filed after Tuesday's arrest of Amtrak facility manager Bernard Fitzgerald stated a worker at the Persimmon Avenue terminal pumped the water into a storm drain Aug. 19 after rain flooded a locomotive repair pit.

Fitzgerald, 59, was charged with illegal commercial dumping, a felony. He was released without posting bail. Contacted Thursday, he said he was not allowed to comment on the incident.

Spokespeople for Amtrak and the state Department of Environmental Regulation were not available for comment Thursday. Alex Alexander, head of the DER's Orlando office, said Wednesday his agency had been meeting with officials of the passenger rail service and expects to levy fines.

According to a court file, Amtrak worker Robert Greco used a rented pump to siphon water from the repair pit. Greco told an investigator he pumped for four hours but was not sure where the storm drain finally emptied.

Greco and other workers said the stormwater seemed clear, and they considered it safe to pump, the report said. Workers needed to clear the pit so mechanics could repair trains the next day.

In following days, Seminole County deputy sheriffs responded to complaints of a fuel spill and found a mile-long film of reddish oil on Lake Monroe leading from a culvert at the Amtrak station.

Seminole Health Department officials put dye in the storm drain and determined that it discharges into Mills Creek and then into Lake Monroe.

Fitzgerald told the investigator that the contaminated water should not have been pumped into the storm drain, but he called it a temporary solution to the flooding problem.

Greco told investigators that if something was done wrong, he was responsible. Greco has not been charged.